Uncle Grover and Trig handme down 22 rifle

Uncle Grover visited my mother and other family members for coffee every Sunday morning; he made his rounds on a regular basis. He and my father were coon-hunting partners; he had a nickname for my dad of Trig. He love to rabbit and coon hunt and he loved his biscuits and gravy. My Aunt Hazel cooked them just about everyday so she was very good at it, as I believe she fixed them everyday that they were married.
One morning my dad and Grover and a friend of theirs Virgil came in from coon hunting, and Aunt Hazel made a large bowl of Gravy and about 2 dozen biscuits for the 3 of them. Virgil made the comment to dad that she must have thought there was an army coming for breakfast. Dad chuckled and though to himself that Virgil was in for a surprise to watch Uncle Grover eat biscuits and gravy, when they finished there was not even a scrape left, Virgil could not believe what he had just watched, and talked about it for years. Dad and Grover hunted together for years and they bought a 22 rifle a Remington model 514 some time in the 1960’s. At some point the arm on the bolt got broke and they had someone weld back on. The gun is beat up but shots great, Kenny Ray won first place last year with the gun. I was a little embarrassed as some of the kids were shooting all these new fancy rifle’s with scope’s and some even looked like these Olympic target rifles. Then here was my boy with a well-worn 40 plus year old rifle with open sights and score 95 out of a 100 possible points. And Kenny Ray would not trade or sell for anything, as he is very proud to carry a gun with so much history. I have often thought if the gun could talk what tells it would tell.
Dad and Grover owned dogs together as well, one was a walker hound by the name of Gypsy, and they won several trophies and raised several good pups out of her. I recall not long after dad moved back to Kentucky, Aunt Hazel was mad as hell as Grover bought a dog for a thousand dollars, that was a lot of money for a dog at that time.
When Uncle Grover passed away of a heart attack It was the biggest funeral that I have attended I believe his son Steve said there was a 101 cars in the funeral procession.
Uncle Grover was loved by many, as I cannot recall a time that he was not smiling and joking.In the picture above Trig is on left and Grover on the right.

Goodbye to Ole man winter

What a beautiful day here on the farm, the porch reads fifty-two degrees and I am in my favorite T-shirt enjoying the warm sunshine. I am being serenaded by a some crows calling in the distance as well as a couple of squirrels squaking about thirty yards from my seat here on the porch. I am not sure if the are squeaking at each other, or me but I hope they are squaking at Old man winter, telling him to be on his way. As I am sure they are as tired of him as I am.
My cabin faces due south toward the homeland of Kentucky, and most of the snow and ice are melted in front of the cabin and on the sides. But as I look onto the woods on the northeast side there is still a light covering of snow, it looks like a checkerboard.
I do believe that the worst of winter is behind us now, that the back of the old man is broke. As I seen something today that I have never noticed before, Kenny Ray and I was sitting in the front room of the cabin talking and I noticed some birds in the side yard. It looked funny to me because on a second look it was Robins. I am always looking for the return of the Robins as usually spring is not far behind them. This always makes me happy when I see the first of the year. And I was really happy today and not just because I seen one but I counted twenty five Robins in the yard scratching in the leaf litter for something to eat, twenty five Robins now that has to be a sign.
I had a little fun today out of Kenny Ray as he and I went for a walk this afternoon out to the pond. He wanted to throw rocks out on the frozen pond. We discovered a couple of years ago that when you throw rocks out on the frozen water it make a noise. The noise changes pitch as the rock slides across. And depending on the size of rock also change’s
The tone. It is a lot of fun when you throw multiple rocks. But today no tone’s as there was too much snow over the ice. So I told Kenny Ray lets go get that hornet’s nest out by the fence that we seen back in deer season. We walked out there and he held the limb down while I snapped it off. It was still in good shape considering the bad weather. As we started back to the cabin Kenny Ray asked dad is sure that all the hornets were gone? Yes son they are gone. Dad can I touch it? Sure son go ahead and has is hand touched it I made a buzzing sound with my mouth and when I did Kenny Ray jumped about a foot backwards as it scared him to death. I started laughing pretty hard and he said thanks dad very funny as he picked up a snowball and threw it at me. I laughed all the way back to the cabin and I kept making a buzzing sound. The hornets nest will not only make a good conversation piece but will hold a memory of a fine afternoon spent with my son.
We then drove down and spent a couple of hours with Uncle Ken and he shared some more stories with us. Which takes me to where I am now on the front porch in the sunshine saying goodbye with squirrels to old man winter as he has worn out his welcome.